Mercer County's population grows 4.5 percent in 2010 census led Robbinsville, West Windsor

Cie Stroud/For The TimesMajor housing developments helped fuel population growth in Mercer County towns like Robbinsville, In a 2009 photo, construction work was being done at Washington Town Center in Robbinsville.

MERCER COUNTY -- After two decades of population increases of more than 5 percent, growth in Mercer County cooled somewhat between 2000 and 2010 according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The county’s population grew by about 4.5 percent, from 350,761 in 2000 to 366,513 last year.

Leading the charge were Robbinsville and West Windsor. The number of people calling Robbinsville home grew by 32.8 percent from 10,275 to 13,642, while West Windsor’s population increased by 24 percent from 21,907 to 27,165.

“Robbinsville has become a very desirable place to live,” said Dave Fried, the township’s mayor. The last years has brought a boom of development to the erstwhile farming community, including Robbinsville Town Center, a groomed tract of single-family residences, townhouses and retail shops along Route 33.

“It’s location. It’s the school districts. You’ve got to remember that during that period between this and the last census, we had Town Center,” he added. “It gave people a different type of living environment.”

Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes said the growth reflected well on the region as a whole as a desirable and economically viable place to live.

“I think it’s a good sign for Mercer County that people are moving here as opposed to people moving out,” he said. “There will always be economic activity in the two hubs that surround Mercer County. That’s New York and Philadelphia and that’s always going to keep people interested in our county. (Growth) may be down a little bit, but I think we’re doing well here in Mercer County compared to the rest of the country.”

In fact, Mercer County grew at essentially the same rate as New Jersey as a whole. Statewide, the population increased from about 8.4 million people to 8.8 million, or about 4.5 percent.

Both New Jersey and Mercer County were outpaced by overall population growth in the United States. The country’s population grew by about 9.7 percent over the last ten years, from 281.4 million to 308.7 million.

Between 1981 and 1990, Mercer grew by 5.8 percent. It grew by 7.7 percent between 1991 and 2000.

Mercer County boasted two of the ten most populous towns in the state. Hamilton and Trenton came in ninth and tenth, respectively.

Hamilton’s 88,464 residents last year represented an increase of 1.6 percent from their population of 87,109 a decade previously. Trenton, meanwhile, saw a .6 percent decrease in population, from 85,403 residents to 84,913.

While Trenton’s overall population may have decreased slightly, its Hispanic population continues to increase.

The number of Hispanics in Trenton increased by more than 10,000 during the last decade, from 18,391 in 2000 to 28,621 last year, a 55.6 percent jump. The group officially eclipsed the number of white residents in the city by more than 1,000.

Even these numbers, some leaders in the city’s Hispanic community say, might be an understatement.

“We knew that the numbers were growing and they were going to get even bigger,” said Juan Martinez, president of the nonprofit People for Revitalization of the South Ward, a group that advocates for Hispanics around the city. “The numbers are higher because there’s still that bogeyman of immigration out there. A lot of people didn’t come forward to get counted.”

Most of the city’s Hispanic population is quartered in the south and east wards, Martinez said, but the group is beginning to expand into the North Ward as well.

Countywide, the number of Hispanics grew from 33,898 to 53,654, an increase of about 58.3 percent.

With the specter of illegal immigration and the difficulties of a language barrier, Martinez said that the Hispanic community is at a disadvantage in terms of its social and political clout.

“They’re really behind the eight ball and there’s a lack of equity there regarding the Hispanic and immigrant community,” he said. “It’s already set back because you’re dealing with a community of Hispanics who don’t know the language, they don’t know the government and where to get services.”

Meanwhile, the number of black residents decreased slightly in Trenton while increasing countywide. There were 44,465 black residents in the city in 2000 compared with 44,160 last year. In Mercer County as a whole, there were 73,876 black residents last year and 68,582 in 2000.

The city’s white population, meanwhile, continued to decline. The number sank from 27,802 in 2000 to 27,165 last year.

The ethnic group making the biggest advance in Mercer County was the Asian community, which grew by a whopping 83.9 percent from 17,692 a decade ago to 32,528 last year.

Among the other ethic categories in the countywide tally, 22,111 identified themselves as “other,” 9,858 identified as two-or-more ethnic categories, 1,163 identified as American Indians, and 287 included themselves as Native American.